Gordon Brown, former Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom, is United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and Chair of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity. He chairs the Advisory Board of the Catalyst Foundation.

Comments

I fully agree that education is a basic right of anybody regardless of nationality, culture, location, age or gender.But especially when we put a global context into an article we have to discuss what that education entails.Let us say that in the developed world most young people still have free access to education up to even tertiary level, but these days the question is raised more and more often if this education is useful at all? Most of those young people can do nothing with their qualifications and are simply drifting in a world where youth unemployment is hovering around 50% in certain regions.The present day "modern" education is basically a continuation of the industrial revolution education system, producing "good workers", and today "good consumers". And today when the excessive and artificial constant growth structure is collapsing this education becomes obsolete.There are hardly any elements in the modern education program about raising human beings or especially today, preparing people for the demands of the global, interdependent world.Thus it is not enough to talk about the necessity of education, but we have to give people the right education.We must not fall into the common trend of "ticking boxes" and being proud of ourselves looking at statistics and numbers, forgetting the people behind those statistics.If we do not give the right education preparing people for a proper, productive and happy existence in this unprecedented, global, interconnected and interdependent world, what is the point in giving them anything?Then it just becomes an other "charity" that is good for the giver but it is useless to the one receiving it. Read more

I completely agree with your comments regarding the quality education and appropriate education. Have you looked at TSibA university in South Africa - an interesting curriculum preparing students for today's jobs? Read more

PS On Air: The Super Germ Threat

NOV 2, 2016

In the latest edition of PS On
Air
, Jim O’Neill discusses how to beat antimicrobial resistance, which
threatens millions of lives, with Gavekal Dragonomics’ Anatole Kaletsky
and Leonardo Maisano of
Il Sole 24 Ore.

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